Introduction –
England, Israel and New Zealand are not written constitution, yet those countries are run successfully. The population of these countries is very less as compared to India, but the written constitution, it works to give a direction to run the system in a democracy. In the monarchy, the king used to decide what would be the law and order or the religion system.
In the system of modern democracy, the British brought the Indian Penal Code to India and we still use that system today. The surprising thing is that there is no such special law in England which they made in British India.
Different laws have been made in England for each criminal activity and with this the decisions of the the judiciary are used as law and they are the guide for making laws. Here we will try to know about the features of Indian Penal Code.
What is Indian Penal Code – ,
It is announced by the name that in order to control all the offenses that occur in criminal cases, what will be the provision of interpretation and punishment for that has been decided in this law. Although this law has been passed by the British Parliament in British India, but till date it is being run in the same form with some changes over time.
The meaning of the Indian Penal Code is the code made by collecting all the laws that have been made to punish, it has been prescribed what should be the punishment for the maximum number of crimes committed in the society.
Because if there is any crime in the society, it is not the victim who petitions for it, but the government makes a petition, where the petitioner in a civil case and the accused is both a person and an institution and in those cases compensation is given in the form of justice. Under IPC, the offender gets punished.
History of Indian Penal Code –
The Indian Penal Code was brought to British India, in which this draft was made by Lord Macaulay, but this draft was passed in 1862 after his death with some changes. The purpose of this law in British India and the purpose of this law in independent India are quite different, yet this law was continued in the same way.
This law is still used in Bangladesh and Pakistan as it is today. Talking about England, his Parliament has never made such a law there and there is no written constitution, but there Parliament has a lot of power to make laws, but the case study of the judicial system there is used to make laws. Is.
The purpose of bringing this law in British India was that by 1857, the British Crown had taken over the power of India from the East India Company and to control the violent movement in India, such a law system was needed so that such people and the British rule should be run properly.
After India got independence, the objective of the IPC, which was called “police system” was changed to “sovereign state law and order” which would work to establish peace and law and order in the society. .
Criminal Procedure Code –
In order to maintain law and order in independent India, IPC, this law was kept to punish in criminal cases. The Criminal Procedure Code was created in 1973, which was also in British India, but it was implemented with many changes.
This law decided what should be the procedure and whose role will be in the entire judicial system to punish in criminal cases. CrPC: Under this law, the judicial system was made, which continued the system made in British India, but many changes were made in it.
Constitution of India and IPC –
As we have seen that this law was made in British India, whose purpose is to keep the British government under control over the people and there should be no uptick, but after the country became independent, this purpose had to be changed but this law was continued in the same way.
Article 13 of the Constitution of India says that before this any law which is inconsistent with the purpose of this constitution will be declared void. Under Article 21, the fundamental right of personal liberty and protection of life cannot be violated by any government.
No person will consider his evidence admissible in his own protest, so the misuse of law was kept in check. In this law, allegations of treason are made for activities against the government, which are quite controversial sections which violate the constitution but are still used today.
The Evidence Act –
The Indian Penal Code requires the Code of Criminal Procedure as well as the Evidence Act law under which one law prescribes punishment, the other law sets the procedure and the Evidence Act decides how to determine the evidence.
This law was also made in British India which was continued in independent India. In this, some expansion has been done in the interpretation due to technology as of today and whatever documents are in electronic form, it has been included in the evidence.
Evidence Act is very important to prove an offense, without this the Indian Penal Code can be said to be incomplete. Evidence Act is used in civil cases and in criminal cases.
In criminal cases, there is very little direct evidence, so the criminal is punished under the principle of chain of circumstantial evidence.
How to read IPC –
Only by knowing the Indian Penal Code, we cannot understand it, for this we have to understand all the laws attached to it. We already understand from IPC law what will be the punishment for criminal activity. It is necessary to understand this law along with the Criminal Procedure Constitution and Evidence Act.
The Indian Penal Code should be read for the purpose of the Indian Constitution, which is mostly not because this law has been very strict in British India and it has been kept as strict even today.
Many philosophers believe that power corrupts and uncontrolled power corrupts uncontrolled, the Indian Penal Code gives unlimited powers to the police administration, this human rights and increases the possibility of abuse of power.
In order to keep its power autocratic, it has been seen to abuse some of the provisions of this law many times, in which its purpose at the time of British India was not to agitate against the British government, but today in democracy the people are the reason for being the owner of the country. The sedition section of this law has no meaning, but it is still used today.
Features of IPC –
As we have seen in America, every state has its own criminal law and most of the cases are settle at their level of 50 states. No special law has been made for criminal law in England, but laws have been made according to the type of crime that occurs. Therefore, we will see what are the features of this law from British India till today.
- In 1834, the first law commission was constituted and a draft was made for this law.
- Lord Macaulay made a new study of this draft.
- After the death of Lord Macaulay in 1862, this law was implemented in British India.
- This law has 511 sections and 23 chapters.
- In British India this law was known for Police State.
- In independent India, it was considered the duty of the law to maintain law and order in the society and control crime for people to live in peace.
- For the crime committed in the society, the state works to get justice for the society by making itself a party.
- The economic level of most of the people in India is not so good that for the crime committed against them, the work of giving justice to the victim is done through the Public Prosecutor.
- The Indian Penal Code says that the offense to be committed in the criminal law and what punishment should be prescribed for it.
Drawbacks of Indian Penal Code / Criticism on IPC –
- This law was done with the aim of controlling the rebellion in British India.
- In independent India, the potential for misuse of the unlimited power of the police administration has increased tremendously.
- According to Article 13, the laws before the constitution comes into force and all the laws that will be made after the constitution comes into force, they cannot abrogate the fundamental rights of the citizens, but many times it is seen to happen that the practitioners of law believe.
- According to Article 21, no person can be a witness in his own opposition, but many incidents are seen.
- Due to the strictness of this law, many human rights cases have come to the fore.
- Instead of having faith in the police administration in the society, there is more fear which defeats our purpose.
- Due to the delay in the judicial system, many times an innocent accused has to stay in jail for several days and then he is released innocent, in which there is no accountability for the damage caused to him.
Importance of Investigation & Technology-
Most criminal cases are solved on the basis of circumstantial evidences therefore forensic science with technology of fingerprints and DNA are very crucial in this. Logical evidence chain of this with forensic science and DNA technology are used in today’s investigation in many countries especially in India also. CCTV, DNA, fingerprints and social media platform are very important for finding out the criminals. Therefore, we have made changes in evidence act with digital evidences like email and digital documents in criminal proceedings.
In a technology world we can preserve the criminal data to keep safe the society from criminals, but there is a new cyber law, we discovered in our criminal law where online fraud is increased. There is require cyber law system to handle this criminal activities through online, which is in India till today its require bit improvements as compared to developed countries.
Other Criminal Laws –
The constitution has allows every state to make its own laws to maintain its law and order, under which every state makes laws in view of the criminal cases of its state. In this, many such criminal laws have been made for terrorist activities, drug cases, special laws for organized crime.
In law and order, for which there is no mention in the Indian Penal Code, those laws have been made separately from time to time, whose basic basis is the Indian Penal Code, but in this it is seen that the administration has been given more powers.
Laws should be made to eliminate the problem basically, it is necessary to have strict laws, the possibilities of its misuse in democracy are very high, but for this it is necessary for the public to be aware, this evidence is very high in Europe and America. Because of this, the misuse of power does not happen there, but it is very less compared to India.
Conclusion –
The Number of under-trial accused This can be said to be the most serious problem of the judicial process of India in today’s date, which is a violation of Article 21, for which the whole system is answerable, but due to the lack of awareness of the society, this issue does not come up.
In today’s technology era in law and order, it is necessary to have a law and order system for the continuous change and protection of the people. It is necessary to build trust in the people towards the administration. Indian Penal Code This document is 160 years old and its purpose is contrary to democracy, so there is a need to make many changes in the basic structure of the Indian Penal Code, according to law experts.
The more the law, the more it is considered a symptom of not being aware of the law, because reasoning, intelligence is necessary to develop the consciousness of justice, so the crime has to be made by looking at the root cause so that the crime in the society can be reduced and the response of the administration. The body has to be decided.